Book Description

Excerpt from Encyclopedia of Antiquities, and Elements of Archaeology, Classical and Mediæval, Vol. 1 of 2 Madame de Stael says, The erudition derived from Archaeology is far more animated than that we acquire from books; we seem to revive what we unveil; and the past appears to rise from the dust which concealed. It. This passion for antiquity is no idle prejudice. We live in an age, when self-interest seems the ruling principle of all men what sympathy, what enthusiasm can ever be its results) Again, Antiquity inspires insatiable curiosity. To penetrate the past, interrogate the human heart through many ages; to seize on a fact in a word, and on the manners or character of a nation in a fact; to re-enter the most distant time, in order to conceive how the earth looked in its youth, and in what way men supported the life, which civilisation has Since rendered so complicated. This were a continual effort of imagination, whose guesses discover secrets that study and reflection cannot reveal. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.